Parental Involvement Typologies in Rural Community Schools: A Qualitative Investigation.

There are a number of pressing issues facing today\u27s educational society. Among the most controversial is the research and information surrounding the perceived positive or negative effects of parental involvement and barriers that restrict parental involvement. The purpose of this study was to examine 6 parental involvement typologies and their use and existence in 3 East Tennessee elementary schools. The Epstein (1987) typologies were used to classify parent involvement modalities. Parents who had a child enrolled in the 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade during the 2007-2008 school year were interviewed. The interviews followed an open-ended interview guide and the research is qualitative in nature. Research findings in this study were consistent with findings from a number of previous parental involvement studies. Research participants displayed an appreciation for the educational process and voiced strong opinions on parenting, communication, volunteering, decision-making, learning at home, and collaboration with the community. Barriers to parental involvement practices were addressed as were suggestions for improved parental involvement opportunities and modalities

The Guidebook, the Friend, and the Room: Visitor Experience in a Historic House

In this paper, we describe an electronic guidebook prototype and report on a study of its use in a historic house. Supported by mechanisms in the guidebook, visitors constructed experiences that had a high degree of interaction with three entities: the guidebook, their companions, and the house and its contents. For example, we found that most visitors played audio descriptions played through speakers (rather than using headphones or reading textual descriptions) to facilitate communication with their companions

Thrompella: Acute Impella Thrombosis During Ecpella Support

We present a case of acute Impella thrombosis during Ecpella support in a 48-year-old man listed for a heart transplant. After two weeks of Ecpella support, echocardiography revealed a 2.6 x 1.1 cm mobile thrombus attached to the Impella inlet (Video). The Impella and attached thrombus were pulled across the aortic valve into the descending aorta and removed without systemic thromboembolism. Due to the ongoing need for left ventricular venting, a new Impella CP was placed

Designing an Adaptive Web Navigation Interface for Users with Variable Pointing Performance

Many online services and products require users to point and interact with user interface elements. For individuals who experience variable pointing ability due to physical impairments, environmental issues or age, using an input device (e.g., a computer mouse) to select elements on a website can be difficult. Adaptive user interfaces dynamically change their functionality in response to user behavior. They can support individuals with variable pointing abilities by 1) adapting dynamically to make element selection easier when a user is experiencing pointing difficulties, and 2) informing users about these pointing errors. While adaptive interfaces are increasingly prevalent on the Web, little is known about the preferences and expectations of users with variable pointing abilities and how to design systems that dynamically support them given these preferences. We conducted an investigation with 27 individuals who intermittently experience pointing problems to inform the design of an adaptive interface for web navigation. We used a functional high-fidelity prototype as a probe to gather information about user preferences and expectations. Our participants expected the system to recognize and integrate their preferences for how pointing tasks were carried out, preferred to receive information about system functionality and wanted to be in control of the interaction. We used findings from the study to inform the design of an adaptive Web navigation interface, PINATA that tracks user pointing performance over time and provides dynamic notifications and assistance tailored to their specifications. Our work contributes to a better understanding of users' preferences and expectations of the design of an adaptive pointing system

Identification of unique gene expression profiles for estrogen receptor alpha or beta

The study of estrogen receptors are of interest due to the critical role of the estrogen signaling system in the physiology of multiple tissue systems. There are two distinct receptor types, ERalpha or ERbeta. Due to structural and functional differences, our interest lies in discovering unique independent gene expression profiles in the presence of ERalpha or ERbeta. We have examined gene regulation of the two ER isotypes within a rat embryonic fibroblast cell culture model designed to evaluate effects of each receptor protein isolated from the influence of the other; Rat1+ERalpha, Rat1+ERbeta, and precursor Rat1. Using this in vitro/ cell model, a treatment scheme involving 17beta-estradiol (E2) treatment for 24h was used to identify unique gene expression profiles. This was later followed by single dose treatments of diethylstilbestrol, 4-hydroxytamoxifen, raloxifene-HCl, or genistein for 6, 9, 12, 18, or 24 h. Treatment was followed by extraction of total RNA. To evaluate independent roles of ER, cDNA were generated from Rat1+ER?, Rat1+ER? and parental Rat1 cells following treatment with a single dose of E2 or an ethanol vehicle for 24 hours and subjected to suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH). The SSH technique demonstrated that ERalpha and ERbeta can result in differential gene expression. Genes pro-alpha-2(I) collagen, procollagen C-proteinase enhancer protein, cathepsin L, and receptor for activated protein kinase C isolated through SSH, in addition to previously studied progesterone receptor (PR), were identified for real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis to determine profile changes in the presence of different ligands over time. These data demonstrate that unique gene expression patterns exist within cells of the same genetic background, and that profile interactions are specific to ERalpha or ERbeta expression. The effects of ER isotypes as it relates to PR expression suggest that ERalpha in the presence of E2 has a major regulatory role, and that a possible cross-talk pathway exists through ERbeta mediation. The effects upon genes involved in extracellular matrix formation and general cell processes in the presence of ERalpha or ERbeta aids in understanding treatment effects and supplies impetus to better elucidate the pathway regulation involved in ER biology

Situado and sabana : Spain's support system for the presidio and mission provinces of Florida. Anthropological papers of the AMNH ; no. 74

249 p. : ill., maps ; 26 cm.Includes bibliographical references (p. 214-234) and index.This is an analysis of the mixed support system by which Spain maintained an economically unprofitable but strategic presidia! colony on the contested east coast of North America for two centuries. The system was an open-ended one which combined private enterprise, royal subventions and drafted labor, the relative share of each fluctuating as a function of the changing levels of external pressure, whether of threat or opportunity. The Peripheries Paradigm that emerges from an examination of the 17th-century Spanish Southeast is dynamic and essentially secular, little resembling the Borderlands Paradigm derived some 70 years ago from a study of the isolated mission presidios of the 18th-century Southwest. Spanish or Indian, the inhabitants of the presidio and mission provinces of Florida knowingly pursued their individual interests across an international arena. The captaincy general of Florida passed through five distinct support phases between its founding in 1565 and its cession to the British in 1763, an interval that historians call the First Spanish Period. In the first phase, the colony was founded as a cooperative venture between the Crown and a private conqueror, as Philip II reinforced the expedition of Pedro Menendez de Aviles in order to eliminate a rival colony of Frenchmen. When it became clear that corsairs and Indian resistance would prevent the Spanish from exploiting the inland centers of Southeastern population and production and thus becoming self-sufficient, the king institutionalized a set of annual treasury transfers, the situado, to meet the presidio payroll and other expenses. In the second phase, Franciscan missionaries supported by royal stipends began to provide the colony with a hinterland, starting on the Atlantic coast with the provinces of eastern Timucua and Guale. Soldiers ensured that the Indian lords of the land would fulfill their sworn contracts of conversion, trade, mutual defense, and allegiance, and the Crown rewarded the chiefs' obedience with regular gifts. They in turn acted as brokers of the sabana and repartimiento systems, transferring provisions and labor from Indian towns to the Spanish presidio and convents and from Indian commoners to Spanish and Indian authorities. When, in the 1620s and 1630s, Spain's wars with the Dutch made delivery of the situado uncertain, soldiers and Franciscans again moved forward, expanding the hinterland to take in the Gulf coast provinces of Apalache and western Timucua. In this third phase the colony acquired new sources of native support and enlarged its slim financial base by the sale of provisions to the rapidly growing city of Havana. In the 1680s, as the amount of non-Spanish shipping in the Atlantic rose sharply, external pressures reached dangerous levels. English and French pirate attacks became seasonal, while Southeastern Indians beyond the Spanish sphere of influence gained access to firearms and began raiding the Christian towns for Indian slaves and altar ornaments. Spain's response was to strengthen the presidial center at the expense of the peripheries. During the building of the Castillo de San Marcos, in this fourth phase, increased royal investment and a rising population in St. Augustine encouraged the growth of cattle ranches in central Florida. Mounting demands for labor, provisions, and local defense fell on a native population that was already reduced by epidemics and fugitivism. In the early 1700s, Indian commoners took advantage of Florida's war with Carolina to abandon their towns and chiefs altogether. The Spanish retained effective control only of St. Augustine, which became an entrepot of intercolonial trade. During the fifth phase, which ended with the colony's cession in 1763, the mixed support system was back where it started, depending on a mixture of royal subsidies and private enterprise: the situado and the sea. The laborers had walked out of the model